New Household Items

Many of you know I'm an avid thrifter and recycler.  That means fearlessly going into thrift stores and shopping at garage/yard/tag sales and estate sales.  I am following a couple of blogs that are all about thrifting and garage-saling and they post some of their best finds.  There's a blog from Seattle called Yard Sale Bloodbath, and it not only has an awesome title, but the bloggers take a lot of photos at sales of items they'll never buy (possibly items that NO ONE would ever buy) and unique photos of the "garage sale" signs.  Here in the Phoenix area, signage is pretty pathetic and it's a huge pet peeve to follow signs...from last weekend's sale and they were too lazy to take down the signs!  What I'm always looking for:

Postcards

Stamps

Vintage ephemera

Cooking equipment

Books

Anyhoo, here are some of my recent best finds:

Found this painting at an estate sale.  It's huge and is now hanging in my guest bedroom.  I recently redid the color scheme from lavender/purple to ocean blue.  I think the colors are just dreamy.

My beau trash-picked this at culinary school because he knew I'd like the saffron tin from Spain!

We went out garage saling this morning very early because it starts getting hot at, like, 7AM.  Seriously!  We were hunting for camping gear because Nesto will be going hunting this fall. He did find two new fishing rods for $5 and two ice coolers.  We found a chef's table with a stainless steel work surface to add to the kitchen so he has more work space.  One side can be flipped up and it came with two stools, so he can visit with people while he's cooking!

Here is the rest of our finds:  DVD's for $1 apiece, unopened puzzle, fairy book to cut up for mail art, lots of ephemera from the 1930's and 1940's -- much of it travel-related, vintage car owner's manuals, a bundt cake pan, and four placemats for $1 with loteria on them (Mexican bingo). 
Note:  Yes, that's my refrigerator on the left with a couple of Elvis magnets and a child's drawing and other miscellaneous items.  Someone once told me, "You can tell a lot about a person by the front of their refrigerator."  Mine has a LOT of shizzle on it...

 

We also found this elk antler decorated with a wood-etched scene, signed by the artist.  The back of it indicates it was made by Antler Creations in Flagstaff, Arizona.


I received these lovely small prints from my penfriend Gemma, who is an artist that you can find on etsy.  I framed the Four Fair Maidens with a background of scrapbook paper and they are now proudly hanging in my home.  She has many other sweet illustrations in her shop.